At Cannes Lions, Jury Presidents Asked for More from Purpose-Driven Work

Purpose-driven advertising has dominated the industry for a few years now and awards, like Cannes Lions, have reflected this trend. Or is it more accurate to say that awards have been given to so much purpose-driven work in recent memory that it has influenced the kind of work that’s made today? It’s impossible to say, however Marco Venturelli, chief creative officer, Publicis Groupe France – and jury president of the Outdoor category at the 2024 Cannes Lions – wondered whether the industry is entering a ‘post purpose’ phase alongside members of his jury. 

“Purpose, if you want to translate it into normal words, is just doing things in a responsible way and caring for something,” said Marco. For him, the post purpose era is defined by a new cynicism and scrutiny towards brands that engage in purpose-driven advertising. “Of course [brands] need to be responsible with their impact [but] we want to prove that you can do purposeful things, respectfully, while trying to sell.”

Simon Vicars, chief creative officer at Colenso BBDO, thanked Cannes for “empowering us to question purpose,” adding that “it’s very hard to scrutinise a purpose-led piece of work without feeling like you’re scrutinising purpose and that's very difficult to do without a mandate and a permission. What we’ve seen over the last decade is the inability to question purpose-led work, because it appears that we’re questioning the purpose.” 

Simon had a very clear view on what he does and doesn’t support when it comes to purposeful work. “The purpose that I champion is not a brand doing philanthropy on the side. Philanthropy for a brand never changes anything; the brand has to make money from doing good. The more money they make, the more change they'll create. So as an industry, I want us to celebrate good business that makes brands rich because then we change more things.”

Rose Herceg, country president Australia & New Zealand, WPP, strongly echoed Simon’s sentiments. “I'm all for what is worthy and what changes the planet and what has purpose and what is good. I also recognise that unless we are making money for our clients and with our clients, we won't have an industry in a decade. And so for anyone there who is looking at how to weigh doing good and turning a profit, these things are not mutually exclusive. They can go together, and they can be very healthy bedfellows. And I encourage us all to think that way.”

Other jury presidents questioned why purpose couldn’t also have other dimensions like fun and humour. Fura Johannesdottir, chief creative officer at Huge, said: “I feel that we can be quite serious as an industry, there’s a lot of purpose work and we're all into purpose and making a better world. But purpose work can also be fun and interesting.” She did note that “we're seeing more of that” in reference to the shift in mood among purpose-driven work. 

Madeline Nelson, US head of independent label relations, Amazon Music, and jury president in the Entertainment Lions for Music category was less jaded on the topic. “We saw so much purpose-driven work. It was refreshing. It was fun to see brands not be performative with that purpose-driven work, and to see how music played into that.” She was joined by Geoffrey Edwards, managing director and creative at GALE – jury president for Entertainment Lions – who said that his jury “found purpose in the category which is refreshing.”

No one was writing off purpose-driven work completely but they did question and probe the relevancy and nuance of its deployment. Louise Johnson, CEO at Fuse, noted how purpose alone isn’t enough. “We always get asked around purpose, and we had a lot of discussions in the room around the balance between creativity and purpose which is something I'm very passionate about. We were united around the fact that purpose is much less around just awareness of a cause today,” she said, pointing to the need for purpose – and anyone who makes that kind of work – to offer more and to dive beneath the surface. 

Anselmo Ramos, founder and creative chairman at GUT, whose jury awarded the Grand Prix to Pop-Tarts’ ‘The First Edible Mascot’, likewise wants purpose to have, well, purpose. “We all felt in the jury room that, overall, advertising has become a bit too serious in the last couple years; there's a lot of purpose-driven work. Sometimes it makes a lot of sense for the brand, but that's a part of the brand and there from the beginning of the brand. And sometimes it doesn't really make sense. We thought that we're just losing a little bit of entertainment, which is just making people laugh.”

Harjot Singh, global chief strategy officer, McCann and McCann Worldgroup, didn’t mince his words when discussing the role purpose can and should play for brands. Firstly, he said that brands need to question whether their chosen causes are a “credible and authentic space” for them to be present in. “If you're going to get in front of a parade, do you have a right to be in front of it?,” he challenged. The second part was focused on impact. “If you're going to borrow from something, are you going to give back exponentially as well? So it's one thing to kind of take something that's going on, but what is the brand doing to actually solve the issue?,” he added. 

His final point was about commerciality and effectiveness – fitting as Harjot was this year’s jury president for the Effectiveness Lions. “Is it building your business?,” he asked of purpose-driven work. “Because it has to be tied into the brand's point of view on the world. You can't have a point of view in the world that has absolutely nothing to do with care and protection of pandas, for example, and then go on about saving the pandas just because it's something you want to do.” 

With Cannes Lions done and dusted for 2024, the purpose agenda has been set for the year ahead: do it if you want to, make it fun and funny, and – above all else – make sure it’s relevant to the brand and its business objectives.